Vocabulary

Gemstone: A hard colorful mixture that has a brilliant or glassy luster
Ore: A rock that contains a metal or economically useful mineral
Alloy: A combination of two or more metals

Outline

The use of minerals

Minerals are a source of metals, gemstones, and other materials used to make products.

Gemstones such as rubies and sapphires are valued for their color, luster and durability and because they are rare.
- Metals such as aluminum, iron, copper or silver are useful because they can be stretched into wire, or flattened into sheets, and hammered or molded without breaking.

Ores

A rock containing a useful mineral is called an ore.
- Most metals do not come in a pure form.
  - A metal usually occurs as a mineral that isa combination of metal and other elements.

Prospecting

A prospector is anyone who searches or prospects for an ore deposit.
- Geologists prospect for ores by looking for certain features on the earth's surface.

Mining

There are three types of mines. They are strip mines, open pit mines and shaft mines.
- In strip mining earth moving equipment scrapes away soil to expose ore
  - In open pit mining ,miners use earthmoving equipment to dig an tremendous pit
    - Miners dig an open pit mine to remove ore deposits that may start near the surface ,but extend down for hundreds of meters.
    - some open pit miners are more than a kilometer wide and nearly

Smelting

After miners remove ore from the mine, smelting is necessary to remove the metal from the ore.
- In this process of smelting, an ore is melted to separate the useful metal from other elements the ore contains.